Editing Thomas Beecham (section)

==Repertoire==

===Handel, Haydn, and Mozart===
{{see also|Beecham-Handel suites}}
[[File:Teyte-Cherubino.jpg|thumb|right|150px|alt=full length portrait of a woman dressed as a boy in eighteenth century military costume|[[Maggie Teyte]] as Cherubino in Beecham's 1910 production of ''[[The Marriage of Figaro]]'']]
The earliest composer whose music Beecham regularly performed was [[George Frideric Handel|Handel]], whom he called, "the great international master of all time. ... He wrote Italian music better than any Italian; French music better than any Frenchman; English music better than any Englishman; and, with the exception of Bach, outrivalled all other Germans."<ref>Beecham (1992), p. 5</ref> In his performances of Handel, Beecham ignored what he called the "professors, pedants, pedagogues".<ref name=jefferson236>Jefferson, p. 236</ref> He followed Mendelssohn and Mozart in editing and reorchestrating Handel's scores to suit contemporary tastes.<ref name=jefferson236/> At a time when Handel's operas were scarcely known, Beecham knew them so well that he was able to arrange three ballets, two other suites and a piano concerto from them.{{refn|The Handel works on which Beecham drew included ''[[Admeto]], [[Alcina]], [[Ariodante]], [[Clori, Tirsi e Fileno]], [[Lotario (Handel)|Lotario]], Il Parnasso in Festa, [[Il pastor fido]], [[Radamisto (Handel)|Radamisto]], [[Rinaldo (opera)|Rinaldo]], [[Rodrigo]], [[Serse]], [[Teseo]]'' and ''[[The Triumph of Time and Truth]]''.<ref>Golding, pp 3–6; and Melville-Mason (Handel), pp. 4–5</ref>|group= n}} He gave Handel's oratorio ''[[Solomon (Handel)|Solomon]]'' its first performance since the 18th century, with a text edited by the conductor.<ref>Procter-Gregg, p. 14</ref>

With Haydn, too, Beecham was far from an authenticist, using unscholarly 19th-century versions of the scores, avoiding the use of the [[harpsichord]], and phrasing the music romantically.<ref name=gramhaydn/> He recorded the twelve "[[London symphonies|London]]" symphonies, and regularly programmed some of them in his concerts.<ref>Jefferson, pp. 235–236</ref> Earlier Haydn works were unfamiliar in the first half of the 20th century, but Beecham conducted several of them, including the [[Symphony No. 40 (Joseph Haydn)|Symphony No. 40]] and an early piano concerto.<ref>Procter-Gregg, p. 197</ref> He programmed ''[[The Seasons (Haydn)|The Seasons]]'' regularly throughout his career, recording it for [[EMI]] in 1956, and in 1944 added ''[[The Creation (Haydn)|The Creation]]'' to his repertoire.<ref name=jefferson236/>

For Beecham, Mozart was "the central point of European music,"<ref>Jefferson, p. 238</ref> and he treated the composer's scores with more deference than he gave most others. He edited the incomplete [[Requiem (Mozart)|Requiem]], made English translations of at least two of the great operas, and introduced Covent Garden audiences who had rarely if ever heard them to ''[[Così fan tutte]]'', ''[[Der Schauspieldirektor]]'' and ''[[Die Entführung aus dem Serail]]''; he also regularly programmed ''[[The Magic Flute]]'', ''[[Don Giovanni]]'' and ''[[The Marriage of Figaro]]''.<ref>Lucas, pp. 62–63</ref>{{refn|Beecham liked to claim that he introduced ''Così fan tutte'' to Britain.<ref name=pg182>Procter-Gregg, p. 182.</ref> In fact, although he gave its first British performance for decades at His Majesty's Theatre in 1910, it had been performed in London in 1811,<ref name=holden>Holden, p. 253</ref><ref>"King's Theatre", ''The Times'', 7 May 1811, p. 4; and 29 June 1811, p. 2</ref> in 1818<ref>"King's Theatre", ''The Times'', 12 June 1818, p. 2; and 21 July 1818, p. 2</ref> and again by the St. George's Opera Company in 1873, attracting very favourable comment from ''The Times''.<ref>"St. George's Opera", ''The Times'', 21 January 1873, p. 4</ref> Beecham was, however, correct when he teased an American lecture audience that ''Così fan tutte'' did not appear in the US until "about thirteen years" after his London production.<ref name=pg182/> The US premiere was in 1922.<ref name=holden/>|group= n}} He considered the best of Mozart's piano concertos to be "the most beautiful compositions of their kind in the world", and he played them many times with Betty Humby-Beecham and others.<ref>Jefferson, pp. 115 and 238</ref>

===German music===
[[File:Rosenkavalier-1913.jpg|thumb|left|alt=scene from operatic production, showing a man, woman and girl in 18th century costume|Beecham's 1913 production of Strauss's ''[[Der Rosenkavalier]]'']]
Beecham's attitude towards 19th-century German repertoire was equivocal. He frequently disparaged Beethoven, Wagner and others, but regularly conducted their works, often with great success.<ref name=cardus60>Cardus, p. 60</ref> He observed, "Wagner, though a tremendous genius, gorged music like a German who overeats. And [[Anton Bruckner|Bruckner]] was a hobbledehoy who had no style at all&nbsp;... Even Beethoven thumped the tub; the [[Symphony No. 9 (Beethoven)|Ninth symphony]] was composed by a kind of Mr. [[William Ewart Gladstone|Gladstone]] of music."<ref name=cardus60/> Despite his criticisms, Beecham conducted all the Beethoven symphonies during his career, and he made studio recordings of Nos. 2, 3, 4, 6, 7 and 8, and live recordings of No. 9 and ''[[Missa Solemnis (Beethoven)|Missa Solemnis]]''.<ref>Jenkins (1988), p. 3; and [http://www.worldcat.org/search?qt=worldcat_org_all&q=Beethoven+Thomas+Beecham "Search results: Beethoven/Thomas Beecham"], WorldCat. Retrieved 2 May 2014</ref> He conducted the [[Piano Concerto No. 4 (Beethoven)|Fourth Piano Concerto]] with pleasure (recording it with [[Arthur Rubinstein]] and the LPO) but avoided the ''[[Piano Concerto No. 5 (Beethoven)|Emperor Concerto]]'' when possible.<ref name=jefferson235>Jefferson, p. 235</ref>

Beecham was not known for his Bach<ref>Cardus, p. 28</ref> but nonetheless chose Bach (arranged by Beecham) for his debut at the Metropolitan Opera. He later gave the Third [[Brandenburg concertos|Brandenburg Concerto]] in one of his memorial concerts for Wilhelm Furtwängler (a performance described by ''The Times'' as "a travesty, albeit an invigorating one").<ref>"Concerts", ''The Times'', 19 January 1955</ref> In Brahms's music, Beecham was selective. He made a speciality of the [[Symphony No. 2 (Brahms)|Second Symphony]]<ref name=jefferson235/> but conducted the [[Symphony No. 3 (Brahms)|Third]] only occasionally,{{refn|Beecham gave a "blazing" performance of it at a memorial concert for [[Arturo Toscanini]] in New York in January 1957.<ref>Lucas, p. 331</ref>|group= n}} the First rarely, and the [[Symphony No. 4 (Brahms)|Fourth]] never. <!--adequate citation is needed for this: He sometimes conducted the German Requiem, but judged it "a ''dull'' piece";<ref>Baillie, Isobel, ''Never Sing Louder than Lovely'' his 1956 recording of an English-language [[Schicksalslied]] (a work sometimes termed a "Little Requiem")<ref>Edwin Evans. Handbook to the Vocal Works of Brahms. London: W. M. Reeves, 1912.</ref> has been described as "a deeply-felt and eloquently expressed performance...[Beecham] gets to the heart of Brahms's serious Germanic inspiration in such revelatory fashion."<ref>http://www.gramophone.co.uk/review/beecham-conducts-brahms {{Bare URL inline|date=January 2022}}</ref>--> In his memoirs he made no mention of any Brahms performance after the year 1909.<ref>Beecham (1959), p. 81</ref>

Beecham was a great [[Richard Wagner|Wagnerian]],<ref>Cardus, p. 109; Procter-Gregg, p. 77; and Melville-Mason (Wagner), p. 4</ref> despite his frequent expostulation about the composer's length and repetitiousness: "We've been rehearsing for two hours&nbsp;– and we're still playing the same bloody tune!"<ref>Reid, p. 206</ref>  Beecham conducted all the works in the regular Wagner canon with the exception of ''[[Parsifal]]'', which he presented at Covent Garden but never with himself in the pit.<ref>Jefferson, p. 189</ref><ref name=pg203>Procter-Gregg, p. 203</ref> The chief music critic of ''The Times'' observed: "Beecham's ''[[Lohengrin (opera)|Lohengrin]]'' was almost Italian in its lyricism; his ''Ring'' was less heroic than Bruno Walter's or Furtwängler's, but it sang from beginning to end".<ref>Howes, Frank, ''quoted in'' Procter-Gregg, p. 77</ref>

Richard Strauss had a lifelong champion in Beecham, who introduced ''Elektra'', ''Salome'', ''Der Rosenkavalier'' and other operas to England. Beecham programmed ''Ein Heldenleben'' from 1910 until his last year; his final recording of it was released shortly after his death.<ref name=jefferson235/><ref>Greenfield, Edward. "Strauss, Richard. ''Ein Heldenleben''", ''Gramophone'', June 1961, p. 32</ref> ''[[Don Quixote (Strauss)|Don Quixote]], [[Till Eulenspiegel's Merry Pranks|Till Eulenspiegel]]'', the ''Bourgeois Gentilhomme'' music and ''[[Don Juan (Strauss)|Don Juan]]'' also featured in his repertory, but not ''[[Also sprach Zarathustra (Strauss)|Also Sprach Zarathustra]]'' or ''[[Death and Transfiguration|Tod und Verklärung]]''.<ref>Jefferson, pp. 234–235</ref> Strauss had the first and last pages of the manuscript of ''Elektra'' framed and presented them to "my highly honoured friend ... and distinguished conductor of my work."<ref>"Composer's Gift to Sir T. Beecham", ''The Times'', 22 April 1938, p. 12</ref>

===French and Italian music===
In the opinion of the jury of the Académie du Disque Français, "Sir Thomas Beecham has done more for French music abroad than any French conductor".<ref>Atkins, p. 15</ref> Berlioz featured prominently in Beecham's repertoire throughout his career, and in an age when the composer's works received little exposure, Beecham presented most of them and recorded many. Along with [[Colin Davis|Sir Colin Davis]], Beecham has been described as one of the two "foremost modern interpreters" of Berlioz's music.<ref>Lebrecht, Norman. [http://www.scena.org/columns/lebrecht/031210-NL-Berlioz.html "Hector Berlioz&nbsp;– the Unloved Genius"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110510004622/http://www.scena.org/columns/lebrecht/031210-NL-Berlioz.html |date=10 May 2011 }}, ''The Lebrecht Weekly (La Scena Musicale)'', 10 December 2003. Retrieved 31 March 2008</ref> Both in concert and the recording studio, Beecham's choices of French music were characteristically eclectic.<ref>Procter-Gregg, p. 196</ref> He avoided Ravel but regularly programmed Debussy. [[Gabriel Fauré|Fauré]] did not feature often, although his orchestral ''[[Pavane (Fauré)|Pavane]]'' was an exception; Beecham's final recording sessions in 1959 included the ''Pavane'' and the ''[[Dolly (Fauré)|Dolly Suite]]''.<ref>Procter-Gregg, pp. 37–38</ref> Bizet was among Beecham's favourites, and other French composers favoured by him included [[Gustave Charpentier]], [[Léo Delibes|Delibes]], [[Henri Duparc (composer)|Duparc]], Grétry, Lalo, [[Jean-Baptiste Lully|Lully]], Offenbach, Saint-Saëns and [[Ambroise Thomas]].<ref>Procter-Gregg, pp. 196–203</ref> Many of Beecham's later recordings of French music were made in Paris with the [[Orchestre National de France|Orchestre National de la Radiodiffusion Française]]. "''C'est un dieu''", their concertmaster said of Beecham in 1957.<ref>Jenkins (2000), p. 3</ref><ref>Procter-Gregg, p. 39</ref>

Of the more than two dozen operas in the [[Verdi]] canon, Beecham conducted eight during his long career: ''[[Il trovatore]]'', ''[[La traviata]]'', ''[[Aida]]'', ''[[Don Carlos]]'', ''[[Rigoletto]]'', ''[[Un ballo in maschera]]'', ''Otello'' and ''[[Falstaff (opera)|Falstaff]]''.<ref name=pg203/> As early as 1904, Beecham met [[Giacomo Puccini|Puccini]] through the librettist [[Luigi Illica]], who had written the libretto for Beecham's youthful attempt at composing an Italian opera.<ref>Lucas, pp. 22–23 and 24–26. Jefferson (pp. 204–205) incorrectly gives the librettist's name as "Giuseppe Illica".</ref> At the time of their meeting, Puccini and Illica were revising ''[[Madama Butterfly]]'' after its disastrous première. Beecham rarely conducted that work, but he conducted ''[[Tosca]]'', ''[[Turandot]]'' and ''La bohème''.<ref>Procter-Gregg, p. 202</ref> His 1956 recording of ''La bohème'', with [[Victoria de los Ángeles]] and [[Jussi Björling]], has seldom been out of the catalogues since its release<ref>Jefferson, p. 200</ref> and received more votes than any other operatic set in a 1967 symposium of prominent critics.<ref>March, pp. 62–63</ref>

===Delius, Sibelius and "Lollipops"===
[[File:Fritz Delius (1907 bw).jpg|right|thumb|upright|alt=profile portrait of a slim middle-aged man, slightly balding, clean shaven|Delius in 1907]]
Except for Delius, Beecham was generally antipathetic to, or at best lukewarm about, the music of his native land and its leading composers.<ref>Jefferson, pp. 230–233</ref> Beecham's championship of Delius, however, promoted the composer from relative obscurity.<ref>Reid, pp. 56–61</ref> Delius's [[amanuensis]], [[Eric Fenby]], referred to Beecham as "excelling all others in the music of Delius ... [[Charles Groves|Groves]] and Sargent may have matched him in the great choruses of ''[[A Mass of Life]]'', but in all else Beecham was matchless, especially with the orchestra."<ref>Procter-Gregg, pp. 56–57</ref> In an all-Delius concert in June 1911 Beecham conducted the premiere of ''[[Songs of Sunset]]''. He put on Delius Festivals in 1929 and 1946<ref>Lucas, pp. 187–189 and 316–18</ref> and presented his concert works throughout his career.<ref>Procter-Gregg, pp. 56–59.</ref> He conducted the British premieres of the operas ''[[A Village Romeo and Juliet]]'' in 1910 and ''[[Koanga]]'' in 1935, and the world premiere of ''Irmelin'' in 1953.<ref>Lucas, pp. 60, 223, and 329</ref> However, he was not an uncritical Delian: he never conducted the [[Requiem (Delius)|''Requiem'']], and he detailed his criticisms of it in his book on Delius.{{refn|Beecham thought Delius's invention was not of the same level in the ''Requiem'' as in earlier large scale compositions, and that a non-Christian requiem was a miscalculation, particularly at the height of the First World War.<ref>Montgomery and Threlfall, p. 135</ref>|group= n}}

Another major 20th-century composer who engaged Beecham's sympathies was Sibelius, who recognised him as a fine conductor of his music (although Sibelius tended to be lavish with praise of anybody who conducted his music).<ref>Osborne, p. 387</ref> In a live recording of a December 1954 concert performance of Sibelius's [[Symphony No. 2 (Sibelius)|Second Symphony]] with the [[BBC Symphony Orchestra]] in the Festival Hall, Beecham can be heard uttering encouraging shouts at the orchestra at climactic moments.<ref>Originally issued on LP as HMV ALP 1947 in 1962 and subsequently reissued on compact disc as BBC Legends BBCL 415–4 in 2005</ref>

Beecham was dismissive of some of the established classics, saying for example, "I would give the whole of Bach's ''Brandenburg Concertos'' for [[Jules Massenet|Massenet]]'s ''[[Manon]]'', and would think I had vastly profited by the exchange".<ref>Cardus, p. 29</ref> He was, by contrast, famous for presenting slight pieces as encores, which he called "lollipops". Some of the best-known were Berlioz's ''Danse des sylphes''; [[Emmanuel Chabrier|Chabrier]]'s ''[[Joyeuse Marche]]'' and [[Charles Gounod|Gounod]]'s ''Le Sommeil de Juliette''.<ref>Jenkins (1991) pp. 4 and 12</ref>